Hacker Enclosed: A Bodyguard Billionaire Romance (White Hat Security Book 8)

by Linzi Baxter

  "How can you not think about it? You will go back to Florida, find a sub at the club, and move on. I'll be in Boston wondering if I will ever see you again."

  “That’s fucked up. You really think that little of me?”

  “No, I just think of the worst-case scenarios. That's how my brain works. I can't help it. Not often do I look at it as if this could workout. My brain goes to what could happen. Your sexy hot and have a good job."

  “Addie, you’re hot as hell. But it never crossed my mind the second I leave Boston you would find another guy. These are things we need to work out and talk about.”

  “It’s hard for me to comprehend you would want to be with me,” she whispered.

  “Why?”

  “For starters, I don't leave my house."

  "You left the state, Addie."

  "I've been scared the whole time except when I'm in your arms. I can't use you as a crutch for the rest of my life."

  "I never asked you to change. But you've tried, and I think you're strong as fuck for doing that. Nobody expects you to change overnight. Hell, in the next week. If there was a magic pill, everyone would take it, but there isn't. These are things we can work on but if you hide from me, there is going to be no resolution."

  “You like me?” A smile spread across her face.

  I couldn’t figure out the words to tell her how much I liked her. Addie made me feel things I never thought would be possible.

  “Yes, I like you. In the last few years, I've been running through the motions each day. I never thought I would find another woman, after…" I paused.

  “Kacey?”

  "Yea, after Kacey. Antonio and Asher keep me busy running missions. They are looking to expand and start taking more cases in the US for married employees. It's hard doing the overseas missions. Even though we're in the private sector, I sometimes spend a couple of months on a mission. And I don't want to put someone through that again."

  “Did you get this tattoo for Kacey?”

  She ran her fingers over the black heart. "Yes, it used to be red with her name. I got it a few days after we got married. We were both so young and broken. Her stepfather abused her, and her mother turned a blind eye. Child protective service came in and removed her from her mother's care she went into the system. Kacey was fifteen when she was placed in the same home as I was. Something clicked, and we became close friends. We also didn't like listening to authority. Our foster parents requested we both be moved, and we didn't want to be separated. So that's when we ran."

  Addie’s face paled. “Where did you live?”

  That was the question Kacey and I should've figured out before going on the run. "The street."

  “How did you get into the Navy?”

  “I liked school. It came easy to me,” I huffed. “If I would’ve tried a little harder, I could've gotten a scholarship to any college, but I wanted money now, and I wanted to take care of Kacey. The week before graduation, the Navy had a table set up at the career fair. The recruiter was a retired Seal. That night I went home and filled out the application.”

  “Is that where you met my brother,” she whispered.

  "We met in BUD/S. During Hell Week, we were on the same boat team. We pushed each other to the max. I'm not sure I would've made it if it wasn't for John."

  Hell Week was just one portion of the six-month long training. The training doesn't only test the physical aspect of your body, but the mental. How mentally strong you can be without breaking. Over a hundred men went into Hell Week during my training, and thirty-four made it.

  Addie leaned forward and placed a kiss on the trident tattoo. Her soft touch sent a spark through my body.

  “Careful Addie,” I groaned.

  “Maybe I don’t want to be careful,” she smiled against my skin.

  She swung her leg over my lap so she could straddle my thighs. Her finger traced over the tattoo on my chest.

  Fuck. She was testing my control. I wanted to flip her on her back and sink into her.

  Addie leaned forward and whispered into my ear, “I need you, Abe.”

  17

  ADDIE

  Sex with Abe was something I thought only existed in books. Last night he carried me back to our room, he stripped me naked and spent hours worshipping my body.

  He’s able to take all the worry and stress away when we’re together.

  What I had expected was for him to tie me to the bed. Instead, he was gentle and took his time running his hands and lips over my body. The only way to describe what he did the night before was we made love.

  I knew after the first time together, it would be hard to walk away, but I still struggled to ask him to conform to my needs. It was too early to ask him to move to Boston, which was on the tip of my tongue after we made love.

  This was uncharted territory for me. Lena would tell me to jump in with both feet and move.

  That would be crazy. Moving to another state for a man I just met.

  But Abe wasn't like any other guy. He tried to understand me even when he was frustrated. And when I had an attack, he didn't have pity in his eyes when he looked at me. Abe cared.

  And I cared about him.

  “Addie?”

  I startled and spilled some of my coffee on the counter. “I didn’t hear you come into the kitchen. You need to tie a bell around your neck or something.”

  “I thought you heard me.” I loved the sound of his voice in the morning.

  Rough and rumbly.

  “I was lost in my head.”

  “Were you thinking about work or the case?”

  “Aren’t they the same?”

  Abe shrugged his shoulders. “You still didn’t answer the question.”

  I took a sip of my coffee and turned toward him. “I was thinking about last night.”

  His lip twitched, and he walked across the kitchen. He wrapped his arms around my waist. “Which part? Where I licked your sweet pussy or where I was deep inside you?”

  “Both,” I choked out.

  “I wish I had time to lay you across the counter and have you for breakfast.” Abe squeezed my ass. “But Charles is calling in a few minutes.”

  “Did he figure something out?”

  “I’m not sure,” he replied. Abe ran kisses up the side of my neck before nipping my ear.

  “I thought you said you had a call.” Abe lifted me, so my ass was on the edge of the counter.

  “I do.”

  “Then you need to stop,” I moaned as he ran his hand up the front of my shirt.

  “How about I make you breakfast,” Abe said as he took a step back.

  Immediately I missed his body pressed against mine. A cold shiver went down my spine.

  “You can’t leave me like this.” I didn’t care if it came out as a whine.

  “I have you right where I want you, all needy,” he volleyed back.

  Abe bent down and got a frying pan out of the cupboard and a dozen eggs. He'd made a good breakfast at his apartment. Spinach, cheese, and mushrooms were the next things he took out of the fridge. It looked like he was making an omelet.

  “Did you learn to cook in the Navy?” I asked, taking the last sip of my coffee.

  “Fuck no,” he laughed. “I learned after I got out. A guy can only eat so much fast food.”

  “I’m not even sure you have an ounce of fat on your body.”

  His abs were rock hard. Even his shirt was a little tight around his biceps. I stayed in bed when Abe got up and ran a few miles. When I was coming downstairs, he was just getting back and jumping in the shower. Early morning workouts were never my idea of fun.

  “What do you want to do today?” he asked, ignoring my comment about his body.

  “There’s not much we can do. I have some work to get caught up on,” I sighed.

  “After I finish my call with Charles and you finish your work, we could spend the day watching movies.”

  “I’d like that. My work won’t take too long. I p
lan to look over the new cases that came in and then take a look at the search I’m running on the files. We're missing something, and it has to be in the files I took. Why else do you think they put a bomb in our car?”

  “Charles has a team working on it.” Abe walked back over and wrapped me in his arms. His fresh, clean scent from just taking a shower filled my nose.

  “I know.” I let out a sigh. “I want it over.”

  Abe stepped back. “So you can get home?”

  “Yes, I want to go home.”

  Abe nodded and turned back to the stove. “Did you look at the service dogs I showed you?”

  On the trip, Abe showed me a website with a few service dogs to help me with my anxiety. I loved the idea, but I didn't know the first step to take.

  “Yes, I even sent a message to my therapist, asking her what she thought.”

  “Did she get back to you?”

  “She thinks it would be a good idea and would help me leave the house more.”

  Getting a service dog had never crossed my mind. At one time, I thought about getting a house pet to keep me company, but then I worried if it had to go to the vet. There wasn't a doubt in my mind a dog would help me, but Abe was also helping me.

  “I’ll make some calls.”

  “You’ve already done enough.”

  Abe took the omelets off the stove and walked back over to the island. He brushed his lips against mine. “Nobody’s keeping score on what we do to help each other. I like taking care of you, please don’t fight me on this.”

  “Okay. I do have another question.”

  "You can ask me anything, Addie."

  “What’s happening between us?”

  Abe ran a hand through his hair. “I don’t know. Do we need to figure it out today?”

  "I like you," I confessed. "But I'm scared to like you too much."

  He pulled me into his arms. “I like you to Addie, but we have time. Let’s eat.”

  Before I could take a bite, his phone vibrated on the counter. Abe swiped his finger across the screen.

  Charles's voice came through the speaker. "Hello, Abe, is Addie on with us."

  “Yes,” I replied.

  “Good, I wanted to talk to both of you.”

  Deep down, I wanted the case to be over, but I also didn't want my time with him to end. "Did you find anything?"

  "No. I still have people working on digging through the files. You took a lot of information, and they didn't store the data in any type of structure. We can't even use keywords to search through the files."

  Abe leaned forward. “If you didn’t find anything, what happened.”

  “It seems your mother and stepfather are missing. We haven’t been able to track them down. They didn’t go to the fundraiser or work this morning. I wanted you guys to make sure to keep the security on in the house and don’t leave.”

  “This isn’t my first operation, Charles,” Abe barked back.

  “Maybe something happened to them?”

  "Nothing happened. Stay safe, and when I find something out, I will give you a call," Charles said before ending the call.

  "Well, that sucks," I grumbled.

  If there was any doubt that my mother or stepfather tried to kill us, it was all gone now. The only reason to hide is that they knew they did something wrong. Now I needed to find the evidence against HUE.

  “They won’t get away with what they did, Addie.” His lip twitched. “But I know something that could take your mind off everything.”

  “And what would that be?”

  Abe didn't answer, instead, he picked me up and threw me over his shoulder. "You're going to hurt your back," I yelled.

  He swatted my ass and carried me to the bedroom where we spent most of the day.

  18

  ABE

  “Have you found anything else in the files?” I asked Addie. We were still in DC, the last three days passed by quickly, and the FBI wasn’t any closer to identifying the person who’d put a bomb in my truck. They were professional. A couple days ago, Charles stopped at the safe house and brought what they could find on Addie’s stepdad.

  We were staying at an AA Security house in DC. Antonio’s place had better security than any place the FBI had. In the movies and television, they always showed people getting to stay in nice large houses with security. In real life, the FBI safe houses I’d seen were small one-bedroom apartments and not always in the best parts of town. Antonio’s house had a pool, a movie room, and a chef’s kitchen. Addie had turned the movie room into her workroom. I contemplated telling my boss I wasn’t going to leave. I sat down in the chair, waiting for her to answer.

  “No, but there has to be something.”

  Or someone else is after me. “Maybe we need to step back and look at other possibilities.” They hadn’t found any information pointing to HUE.

  “We went over this before. There’s no way it’s tied to something else. You know I’m right.”

  The night before, I had to pry the computer out of Addie’s hands to get her to stop stressing. We hadn’t left the house in five days, and I felt like I was going to climb the walls. The longer Addie stayed in the house, the more relaxed she became, and if I mentioned leaving, she started to take deep breaths. She’d done so well out of the house, but the explosion had triggered something.

  “Yes, but we can’t stay locked in the house much longer. We need to talk about the next steps. Director Charles is going to give me a call this afternoon, and he plans to tell me what his next move is. Maybe you can come back to Fort Lauderdale until the threat is gone.”

  “My employees and job are in Boston.”

  “You work from home, and your employees can FaceTime with you until the threat is clear.”

  “I want to go home.” Addie’s hand shook, and I reached over and grabbed it.

  Her words put in perspective what she wanted. “Fine. I’ll figure out a way.”

  “Fine, huh?” Her smile dropped. “I’m not good at this whole thing. Are you mad at me?”

  The past few days she talked about wanting to go home. It almost seemed like she wanted to get away from me. I was the one who kept delaying the talk about the future, but I was trying to give her time.

  “It doesn’t matter. You live in Boston, and that’s where you want to go.”

  “I’m confused and scared,” Addie shot back. “You almost died because I can’t drop something. I never drop what I’m working on.”

  “You didn’t almost get me killed, Addie. That wasn’t the first shoot-out I was in, and with my job, it won’t be the last. Don’t get me wrong, it’s been the first on US soil.”

  “But I’m the reason for this one and if something happens to you I won’t be able to forgive myself.”

  The doorbell to the house rang, and the surprise I’d gotten for Addie was waiting on the other side of the door. The day she said her therapist would approve of a dog I started making calls and cashing in favors. She froze next to me, her eyes going wild.

  “Breathe, Addie.”

  She brought her eyes to me.

  “It’s someone I invited over.” I stood and held out my hand.

  She laid the laptop to the side and followed me. I hoped my surprise wouldn’t make her mad. I’d done a lot of research in the last few days and paid a lot of money.

  When I swung open the door, a middle-aged man stood on the other side. He wore a light jacket. The German shepherd sat with his eyes trained on Addie. His tongue hung out the side of his mouth. “Hi, you must be George, and this must be Axel?”

  The man smiled. “Yes, I’m happy you called. This man right here graduated last week, and you must be Addie?”

  She nodded, but her eyes hadn’t left the dog yet. “Why don’t you come in?”

  I grabbed Addie’s hand and led her to the couch in the living room. The dog's nails clicked against the marble tile. Axel didn’t sit until George commanded him to in German. “Like I told you on the phone, Axel is great
at knowing people's moods. The slight whine is when he feels your anxiety. Do you mind if he comes to you, Addie?”

  “I would love to pet him,” she said softly.

  George unhooked the leash, and Axel hurried to Addie's side and sat down. He rested his head against her thigh as she petted him. Her smile lit up the room. “You’re such a good boy.”

  “I can leave him for the night, and if everything goes okay, tomorrow I can come back and do a full training and teach you all his commands.”

  “Wait. He can stay?” she asked.

  I turned and grabbed Addie’s hand. “He’s for you, Addie. Axel is a service dog. He can help you with anxiety, and he will make it so you have to leave the house every day. From what I read, the more you stay in, the easier it is not to leave, but this guy isn’t going to be able to stay inside all day every day.”

  Axel lay down next to Addie and rested his head on her feet. “But I don’t have a bed, food, or toys for him.”

  George smiled. “I brought a bed and his food.”

  “Oh.”

  “So, do you want him to stay or go?” I asked.

  “Stay.”

  ADDIE

  He got me a dog—the most beautiful creature I’d ever seen. Abe got up to help George bring in all of Axel’s things. I slid off the couch onto the floor and wrapped my arms around Axel’s neck. He smelled like the outdoors.

  When I pulled back, he ran his tongue over my cheek, leaving a trail of slobber. In the distance, I could hear Abe and George talking, but my full attention was on the puppy. Well, he wasn’t really a puppy. I mentally calculated the size of my backyard and where he could sleep in my office.

  There was no way I would let George take Axel back. The dog had stolen my heart with his gray eyes in a heartbeat. Abe dropped a dog bowl on the ground, and it echoed through the house like the bullets in the garage.

  My heart rate ticked up, and my breathing became labored. I kept my eyes on Axel, trying to stop the images of bullet casings or the sounds of screams and shots. Axel pushed my hand with his head. Seconds ticked by as I ran my hand through his soft hair, the images threatening to push to the forefront.